Audi factory driver involved in Audi A3’s world debut

Filipe Albuquerque and Miguel Molina attend German course

Mike Rockenfeller took on the role of an actor for the Geneva Motor Show. The Audi factory driver appears in a trade show film featuring the new Audi A3 as the protagonist.

The third dimension: Audi impressed the audience at the Geneva Motor Show with a double debut. The Audi A3’s world premiere featured the first ever presentation of a three-dimensional video. The episode film “Where is Rocky?” was centered on Mike Rockenfeller. The new Audi A3 is his company car on the way to the race track.

Joint German course: Filipe Albuquerque from Portugal and Miguel Molina from Spain have set up quarters in Ingolstadt. The two Audi factory drivers are preparing for the 2012 DTM season, which includes attending a German language course at the Audi Academy.

Powerful quartet: Team Prosperia uhc speed will be contesting the ADAC GT Masters this year with two Audi R8 LMS ultra cars plus an ambitious driver line-up. Christopher Mies and Christer Jöns, who most recently won the Bathurst 12 Hours in the Audi R8 LMS are forming a driver team. The former ADAC GT Masters title winner Christian Abt is making a comeback in the second Audi R8 LMS ultra; his team-mate is Carsten Tilke.

United Autosports with juniors: In 2012, the Anglo-American United Autosports team is again competing in the British GT Championship with an Audi R8 LMS. The team of Zak Brown and Richard Dean has the Briton Charles Bateman on board as a new signing. The 25-year-old junior driver is sharing the cockpit with his 22-year-old compatriot Matt Bell, who was in contention for the title in the R8 LMS all the way up to the finale last year.

From racing to the road: On Thursday, Audi Sport Italia organized an Audi Ladies Driving Experience for the first time. The former Audi factory driver Tamara Vidali, who is still remembered by many German fans from her days in the Audi A4 quattro, served as an instructor for the group that was exclusively made up of female customers. At the Adria race track the new Audi A1 Sportback quickly became the favorite of many ladies.

Racing history in Essen: Audi is showcasing valuable exhibits from more than 100 years of racing at the “Techno Classica” trade fair. In Essen, at Audi’s booth in hall 7, the brand’s fans will have the opportunity from March 21 to 25 to marvel at numerous winning cars emblazoned with the four rings on their radiator grilles in an exhibition billed as “hill-climb races” ranging from the 1919 Audi Type C “Alpensieger” (“Alpine Winner”) to the 1987 Audi Sport quattro S1 Pikes Peak winner.

A word from ... Mike Rockenfeller

Your DTM commitment had already been locked in and now the confirmation that you will be competing at the Le Mans 24 Hours as well has followed. Is this your dream program?I’m extremely happy that this opportunity with Audi has come about. It means that Dr. Ullrich is giving me a very nice chance for which I’m thankful. I’ve been driving sports cars together with Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas so far and two years ago we jointly won. Now I’ll be sharing the cockpit of the R18 ultra with Oliver Jarvis and Marco Bonanomi. We had a positive start as early as in our tests. Even for the seat fitting we managed to agree on a common position – that’s a nice beginning.

In the DTM everything will be new – Audi, a new competitor and a different team for you as well. Have you got a good feeling? The tests are very important but only at Hockenheim we’ll be able to tell where everyone stands. That makes it difficult to express a feeling. The fact that all of us are competing with the same material within the brand is particularly positive. Overall, the 2012 DTM will be a lot more interesting. Personally, I also think that the A5 DTM is a really beautiful car. I’m returning to Audi Sport Team Phoenix this year. I’ve known this team from many races and felt comfortable there in the past. It’s also the team that provided last year’s champion. I’ve known my team-mate Miguel Molina for two years as well and enjoy working together with him. We’re highly motivated and well set.

A few days ago, you had a special appearance in Geneva... Yes, the presentation of the new Audi A3 was definitely a very special thing. I drove the car in Munich, Malaga and Valencia for the new presentation video that turned out to be truly witty. It was shown as a 3D film on the A3’s world debut in Geneva. The effects were impressive. It’s been nice to see yet again how we, as racers, are part of the corporation and how the brand is backing us. The shoot was fun but I won’t become an actor now – I prefer remaining a racer...

Note on fuel consumption figures at DATFurther information about the official fuel consumption figures and official, specific CO2 emissions of new passenger cars can be found in the “Guide to fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and electricity consumption of new cars,” which is available free of charge from all sales outlets and from DAT (Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH), Hellmuth-Hirth-Strasse 1, 73760 Ostfildern-Scharnhausen, Germany (http://www.dat.de).